I have a Ridgid Drill Press DP1550 I bought from Home Depot back in 2009.

I wanted to know if this problem I have is just a design issue or something that is a defect. Also interested in any fixes you might have tried.

The problem is that when you loosen the table in order to crank it up or down, the gear track moves from side to side a little bit, which of course can screw up the alignment of the drill to the center of the table. This can be a problem especially with a drill press table/fence.

I did see one guy that used a 3” hose clamp to clamp the geared track to the main column, and I think this was to address the same issue I am having.

Just a note about the collar with set screw at the top of the geared track; mine doesn’t keep the track from moving side to side. Is it supposed to?

Any thoughts on this issue or the hose clamp fix? I can post a video if it helps to describe the problem.

Thanks,

Chris

8 replies so far

It is supposed to move so you can move the table side to side. To increase accuracy you can scribe a vertical line on the column and put a mark on the collar that connects to the table to align them after movement.

I have the same drill press and mine works the same way but I think that allowing the track to move is intentional. Suppose you wanted to end drill a piece of long stock by rotating the table to vertical and then clamping the stock to it. You would have to be able to rotate around the column so you could get the table off-center under the chuck (and thereby center the end of the stock under the chuck). While this does mean that the table center will move a little whenever you raise or lower it, I solved this issue by adding an aftermarket laser sight for about $40 and that allows me to rapidly recenter the table after adjusting the height.

I guess I was thinking that once I get a table/fence installed, I would want to take care of the back/forth & side to side with the table/fence, and only use the drill press to go up/down (without affecting the other 2 axes).

I am going to give the hose clamp & laser a try and see if it does what I need.

I also have that drill press, and mine moves too. It’s supposed to; it’s for when you need to swing the table out of the way for specific drilling operations.If you use an auxiliary table, if you scribe a center line on it you can simply align the bit to that when raising or lowering the table. Works like a charm, and cheaper than a laser.

@sumocomputers: I ended up getting the Woodriver laser from Woodcraft. I am still very happy with it. Alignment was fairly straightforward and once it was done, it stayed in alignment even when we moved from Florida to Hawaii. It’s been almost 3 years since I got it and I’m still on the original batteries. I did a review of the DP with laser when I got it so you can see at least an image of how the laser presents itself in use.